78 



CHICK BOOK 



Don't Scald-Pick Poultry 



"While we are discussing effect of sound skins on keep- 

 ing, let us look, for just a moment, at the results of scalding. 

 'This is so wide-spread a custom and so insistently demanded 

 '.by certain localities, and is so bad for the bird, that it deserves 

 special discussion. We all know how hard scalded poultry 

 as on chUled rooms, how soon it becomes slippery when ice 

 packed, and how it does not store so well as dry picked. 'We 

 find but few practical, progressive men, who really advocate 

 scalded stock. This is a case where the public must be 

 educated to take dry picked stock. You can help educate 

 by pushing dry picked birds, little by little, into the scalded 

 markets. It is greatly to be regretted that scalded chickens 

 Are so widely used, not only because they spoil more quickly 

 -and are harder to handle, but because they do not store in 

 a frozen condition as well as dry picked. A dry picked 

 chicken, well dressed and chilled and promptly stored, is a 

 pretty sure thing when frozen. For three months its flavor 

 cannot be distinguished from the fresh, and at the end of 

 six months the difference is a negligible quantity. Nine 

 months show a lessening in flavor, the flesh beginning to 

 .shred a little and it is a wise thing to get that chicken sold 

 and eaten, for every week that it is carried increases the differ- 

 ence between it and the fresh specimen. But we never feel 

 .sure of a scalded 

 chicken in storage. 

 It may keep in 

 good condition for 

 nine months, and 

 It may not keep 

 three months, 

 •even when care- 

 fully prepared for 

 storage. 

 Chilling is Im- 

 portant 

 "If one con- 

 iiinues the history 

 -of the handling of 

 poxiltry in a chro- 

 nological sequence, 

 "the next subject 

 will be chilling. 



Like the subject of scalding, it ought to receive more atten- 

 tion than can be given here. Of all the individual factors 

 for good keeping of poultry, none is so important as the 

 prompt and complete removal of the animal heat. If arti- 

 ficial refrigeration cannot be obtained; if there is no possible 

 way to chill the fowls in cold, dry air; if one must resort to 

 water and ice, there are undoubtedly modifications which 

 •can be made in the process which will teiid to lessen the 

 ■evils which always follow it. The skin and flesh soak up 

 water, as you can readily determine for yourselves if you 

 -will weigh them before and after their bath. 



"For good keeping quality, let us keep the chickens dry, 

 .and help the safeguards that nature has provided rather than 

 Jiinder them. The soaking of the chicken skin in water is 

 some like the scalded skin, except that the latter is more 

 destructive to the skin structure. One has only to glance 

 -at the great difference in the appearance of the skin of a 

 dry picked and scalded bird to realize that some radical 

 change has occured to it. It is a commercial necessity that 

 we shall dress our poultry in such wise that it will keep to 

 the very best advantage, and that the inherent qualities of 

 the bird as an article of food shall be enhanced, not lessened. 

 Because a farmer raises a fine chicken, it by no means follows 

 that it is still a fine chicken when it reaches the consumer's 

 table. It may be so lowered in grade by poor dressing that 



PRIME MARKET POULTRY DRY PICKED 



a much inferior chicken, well dressed, is better eating." 



From the above it will be seen that the government 

 favors the well bred, well fed market chicken and considers 

 dry picked poultry preferable to scalded. 'While for im- 

 mediate home consumption, when the birds are light scalded 

 to remove the feathers and shortly after make their appear- 

 ance on the home table, there may not be the same objection 

 to scald picking as there is in birds intended for shipment 

 to market, we must say that our own preference is for the 

 dry picked bird, properly chilled after dressing and kept on 

 ice for a day or so before cooking. In the latter case the 

 bird is more tender than if cooked soon after kilUng and is 

 usually better flavored and better eating. 



Dry Picking Easily Learned 



Some people complain that it is too much trouble to dry 

 pick poultry for home use and that it is diflBcult to learn to 

 properly dry pick fowls for market. Such complaints are not 

 borne out in practical experience. "We have found that the 

 average person will learn to dry pick poultry rapidly and 

 easily after a very few trials; that when one has once learned 

 to dry pick he considers it much easier and quicker than 

 scald picking. 



The dry picked carcass presents a^much more attractive 

 appearance, stands shipment better, makes a better appear- 

 ance in the mar- 

 ket and actually 

 eats better than 

 scalded poultry 

 that has gone over 

 the same route to 

 market. 



Dry picking 

 may be quickly 

 and easily learned 

 if one will begin 

 with adult fowls 

 that are in full 

 plumage. As the 

 picker acquires 

 skill, he will be 

 able to pick the 

 more soft meated 

 broilers and roast- 

 ers without tearing the tender skin. Personally, we prefer 

 the New Jersey method of dry picking, several stages of 

 which are shown in the accompanying illustrations. 



The only trick in dressing poultry by this method is in 

 learning the stick. If the stick is properly made, the feathers 

 will come out very easily. Picking should always be done 

 in light, well aired, comfortable quarters that can be kept 

 warm in winter and comfortably cool in summer. The picker 

 should be provided with a long burlap apron and a killing 

 knife having a keen edge to the point and not too sharply 

 pointed. The large blade of the average four bladed pocket 

 knife is about right for adult fowls, while the smaller blades 

 are a bettter size for young chickens. For ducks a medium 

 blade shoemaker's knife is best. Such a knife is shaped like 

 the pointed paring knife common to most kitchens, and 

 should be of sufiiciently good steel to be capable of carrying 

 and holding an edge. The picker will soon learn to make a 

 choice of knives to suit the size of the birds that are to be 

 dressed. 



Bleeding and rough picking is done by the picker in a 

 standing position, the bird being suspended by a loop of cord 

 passed about the legs and hung from" a nail driven into the 

 side of the killing room at convenient height to permit the 

 picker grasping the wings and neck of the bird with the left 

 hand, the forearm from wrist to elbow being held in a nearly 



